 |
of Adversity By Dr. Basil Springer |
"Adversity Quotient (AQ) is the science of human resilience. People who successfully apply AQ perform optimally in the face of adversity" www.peaklearning.com
Bridgetown, Barbados, April
4, 2005: At a recent
seminar on Destiny, Health and Wellness held in Barbados, I was
introduced to AQ by a motivational speaker Dr. Paul G. Stoltz
who is the author of the book 'Adversity Quotient - Turning Obstacles
into Opportunities'. I am more familiar with the concept
of Intelligence Quotient (IQ). One whose mental age is
average for his or her chronological age group has an IQ of 100.
Last week was a very busy and eventful week. Firstly, my
column entitled 'The Brian Lara Paradigm' gave rise to very interesting,
to say the least, written and oral responses; secondly, District
Governor David Edwards and his team excelled in the successful
mounting of the annual Rotary International District 7030 Conference
(attended by Rotarians from St. Kitts in the North to the Guianas
in the South) in Barbados; and thirdly, it marked the advent
of the first occupant of my sister's Springcourt condominiums
www.spring-court.com.
Individuals went out of their way to email and telephone me agreeing
with the sentiments I had expressed in the column. There
were, of course, some who would have none of it. They ranged
from agreeing to differ, through cynicism to an aggressive attack
which was concluded by an accusation of Lara-bashing, as if there
were no grounds at all on which the 'Prince of Port of Spain'
could be found wanting. This last response was from an
E. Bastien (I do not know what the 'E' stands for maybe
its Elliot, maybe Elaine, maybe Edgar, maybe Eloise but
I must thank the author for introducing me to two words which
are not included in my everyday vocabulary 'egregious'
and 'tendentious'. 
Good sense tells me that I should offer a compromise to E. Bastien.
I respect Lara as a batting superstar, but I think we should
consider the hypotheses that 'Lara is a good leader' and 'Lara
should be captain of the West Indies team' and seek to assemble
historical data to test these hypotheses. Unfortunately,
neither time nor space permits me to do this here, but it could
be the subject of a university research exercise. I think
I recognized the voice of Eddie Corbin on last Tuesday's Best
and Mason call-in cricket programme on CBC Radio. He seems
to have done some research on the critical characteristics of
successful captains of the West Indies team. This may be
a good place to start. It may help us in selecting cricket
captains in the future. Maybe the Adversity quotient theory would
not be out of place here.
In the interim, Shivnarine Chanderpaul has continued to demonstrate
how to perform optimally in the face of adversity. I would
guess that his Adversity Quotient is high. We need to note
the feat in this first test as Captain that, amidst an unsettled
situation among the stakeholders in WI cricket, he scored an
undefeated double century against the South Africans. Indeed,
a unique feat in the history of cricket.
The piece by E. Bastien to which I referred was entitled 'A West
Indian Solution to a West Indian Problem. He wrote 'Springer's
paralysis is his inability to conceive of the notion that perhaps
there might well be a West Indian firm to provide the sponsorship
for a West Indian team. Well it so happens that there is! The
Trinidadian conglomerate, CL Financial, has offered not only
to sponsor the team, the full team including the magnificent
seven, but also to provide full-time employment for the players'.
I would like to draw Bastien's attention to an excerpt from an
article in the Barbados Daily Nation of Monday 15, March 2004
as follows: 'The group of entrepreneurs who partnered with AT&T
Wireless when it sought a licence to operate in Barbados says
its investment has not been compromised by Cingular's take-over
of AT&T. Word of this has come from Adrian Elcock, managing
director of Exclusive Lighting, who represents the partners BFF
Communications, a group comprising Everson Elcock & Co. Ltd.,
Firgos Property Holdings and SRM Architects. The other investor
is Clico Holdings Ltd., the majority local partner'. I presume
that readers are aware of the relationship between Clico Holdings
Ltd. and CL Financial. I am sure that Digicel does.
Mr. Rawle Brancker, at the Rotary Conference, gave an excellent
update on ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 and it was clear that he
was seeking support from the Caribbean community, particularly
from those with a high AQ, to take advantage of the marketing
legacies that will be offered by the 2007 event.
Deryck Murray, representing Guardian Life of the Caribbean, sponsors
of last Friday's Rotary lunch gave a witty lunchtime address
some of which alluded to his experiences of the IQ and AQ profiles
of West Indian cricketers of his era. Deryck came over to me
afterwards and said 'Basil, I get your weekly column' and as
he was walking away, with a smile on his face, turned to allude
to the Brian Lara Paradigm article. The Springcourt condominiums
is an example of what will be necessary, as Rawle Brancker intimated,
to augment the accommodation plant for 2007 and beyond.
(Dr. Basil Springer GCM is Change-Engine Consultant, Caribbean
Business Enterprise Trust Inc. www.cbet-inc.org)